12/30/2014

It's the second week of winter break, the mister is back at work after the Christmas holiday, and I'm trying to keep the 6 year old occupied while also taking care of our little guy. It's rainy. It's cold. We've been doing all the inside things.

Today, we made play dough.

I love play dough. I love that my almost seven year old enjoys it as much as she did as a toddler. It's a fun thing to make together, and the color possibilities are endless. If you've never made your own, you must! It is wonderfully easy to make and the texture will leave you questioning why you ever spent money on the store-bought stuff.

And, since certain someone has been a little stirred up (to put it mildly) I added in a few essential oils to bring a little bit of calm and focus to our day. We went with lavender, lemon, and the blend "Joy," but you can choose oils that appeal to you and your littles. Orange, peppermint, and Peace & Calming are on my to-make list. The has declared lemon her favorite.

Here's our recipe:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar (or allum)

1 cup water

1 TBS cooking oil

Food coloring of your choice (optional)

Essential oils of choice (optional)

In a medium saucepan, mix together flour, salt, and cream of tartar. Add in water, oil, and food coloring, and stir over medium heat (I find using a spatula works best). Continue stirring while the mixture thickens and continue to stir until the dough reaches the desired consistency. Scrape out of the pan and cool on waxed paper.

If your dough dried out a little too much, add a little water by poking a hole in the dough, pouring in a little water (a tsp at a time) and kneading together.

Use the same method to add the essential oils - with your finger, poke a hole in the dough and add a few drops of oil. Go slowly adding the oils! You can always add more, but if you add too much, the smell will be overpowering. With the lemon, we added about 10 drops, lavender about 7, and only a few of the "Joy" blend.

Feel free to knead in glitter if your little would like, and if you're confident they won't be sneaking bites of your dough!

Enjoy!

** if you're new to essential oils and want more information on where to purchase them & how to get started, please email me at the address in my left sidebar. xo

12/05/2014

It's been so long since I've devoted time to this space, yet in recent weeks, I've been feeling the pull to begin again. The past two years of our life have brought so many changes, and I feel as if I'm in the process of finding myself again. It feels important to be intentional about documenting this chapter we're in - this messy, beautiful, exhausting, sweet space where we currently dwell.

By far the biggest change has been the (surprise!) addition of our son Jack into our family of three. We welcomed him on September 3, and the he turned three months old yesterday. I can hardly believe it! I'm so grateful to be experiecing mothering a wee one for the second time - it has been such a different experience for me. If you know our daughter, you would expect that she'd be a wonderful big sister, and indeed she has been.

About midway through my pregnancy, we learned that Jack would be born with bilateral clubfoot (talipes equinovarus), which is a treatable birth defect where the feet are turned inward and down. Left untreated, walking will be difficult and painful for a child, if it is possible at all. When he was three days old, Jack started treatment using the Ponseti method for correcting clubfoot, which uses a series of casts to correct the position of the foot, a tenotomy to allow for prooper range of motion, and bracing to maintain the correction of the feet. We have made it through 5 castings, and Jack transitioned to his "boots and bar" last week. Between his treatment and trying to figure out his food allergies, it has been a busy 13 weeks! I'm hoping to write more about his treatment, including what we've learned, what has been helpful, and what we've struggled with - in preparting for Jack's birth, I was very grateful to others who shared their stories.